Black Book
Give it 10 hours
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 3 reviews are negative (32%); after 20h it's 1 in 35 (3%).
- Fully opens up by hour 20.
- At least 16% of players who start reach the ending.
- The biggest drop-off is between “Initiation” (Complete the Prologue) and “Aspen Tree” (Complete Chapter 1): from 100% to 53% of starters.
- Only 62% of owners have even the first achievement — the rest barely played.
When it gets good
Share of positive reviews by how many hours the reviewer had played when writing the review.
before it gets good opening up fully opened up
Based on all 6,809 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 298 reviews: 25.4h for positive, 7.1h for negative. Almost every game is rated lower in the first 2–3 hours: that window includes refunds and quick first impressions. What matters is how deep the dip is and how fast the game recovers.
Where players quit
Share of players who started the game and reached each story milestone. 100% is the most common achievement (61.7% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- Initiation Complete the Prologue 100%
- Aspen Tree Complete Chapter 1 Most players quit here 53% −47
- Water Complete Chapter 2 37% −16
- Wolf Complete Chapter 3 32% −5
- Pine Tree Complete Chapter 4 29% −3
- Fern Complete Chapter 5 25% −3
- Dead Man Complete Chapter 6 25% −1
- Black Sorcerer Complete Chapter 7 24% −1
- Righteous Meet your beloved one ≥16% −8
story milestone ending (most common ending) biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (50)
story milestone ending side
- Initiation Complete the Prologue 100%
- Student Collect 10 encyclopedia entries 78%
- Knower Answer 10 Knowledge questions 62%
- Listener Collect 10 bailichkas 55%
- Aspen Tree Complete Chapter 1 53%
- Healer Gather 13 herbs 53%
- Soldier Complete Nikolay loyalty quest 49%
- Scientist Collect 30 encyclopedia entries 43%
- Cow Level Cow level 40%
- Card Player Win 5 times in a card game 37%
- Water Complete Chapter 2 37%
- Old Friend Complete Old Egor loyalty quest 37%
- Herbalist Gather 33 herbs 37%
- Black Mage Answer 25 Knowledge questions 36%
- Voipel Complete Proshka loyalty quest 35%
- New Spirits Take seven demons to your service 34%
- Savvy Guess all the Obderiha riddles with the first attempt 34%
- Dead Friend Release the Mermaid 32%
- Wolf Complete Chapter 3 32%
- Collector Collect 30 bailichkas 31%
- Pine Tree Complete Chapter 4 29%
- Researcher Read 77 entries in the Onomasticon 27%
- 100 Friends Talk with 100 characters 27%
- Fern Complete Chapter 5 25%
- Black Book Retrieve the Book 25%
- Old Spirits Release seven dead men 25%
- Dead Man Complete Chapter 6 25%
- Worthy Break all the seals 25%
- Witch Gather 66 herbs 25%
- Black Sorcerer Complete Chapter 7 24%
- Keeper of Knowledge Answer 40 Knowledge questions 24%
- Folklorist Collect 50 bailichkas 24%
- Encyclopedist Collect 70 encyclopedia entries 23%
- Vorsa Complete Karnysh loyalty quest 22%
- Sinner Acquire 100 sins 21%
- Traveller Visit 333 locations 21%
- Susanin Guess the road in the cursed forest 19%
- Diplomat Negotiate with Susedko on Zemskaia station 17%
- Musician Collect all the songs 16%
- Righteous Meet your beloved one 16%
- Cheater Win 3 times in a card game while cheating 15%
- White Head Complete White Head loyalty quest 15%
- Koldun Succumb to Dark forces 14%
- Black Sorceress Unlock all the black words 14%
- Detective Find all the clues in Nemzya 11%
- Revelation Unlock all the words 9.9%
- Great Sorceress Compose a spell out of 13 words 8.6%
- Own Way Don't release the Mermaid 7.1%
- Mistress of Hell Become a mistress of Hell 7.0%
- Word Master Collect 4 copies of each card 3.4%